Primary 2012: Bruce, Bishop to be in runoff July 31

Sheriff narrowly misses outright win

Eric J. Shelton/Reporter-News
Taylor County Sheriff Les Bruce shakes hands with supporter Brad Bircham on Tuesday night after Bruce learned that, he would be in a runoff election with challenger Deputy Sheriff Ricky Bishop on July 31.

Eric J. Shelton/Reporter-News
Taylor County sheriff candidate Ricky Bishop (center) checks for an election update with his son Ricky Bishop III (left) and Bobby Votaw outside Logan's Roadhouse on Tuesday night. Bishop, a Taylor County deputy sheriff, finished with 3,649 votes and will be in a runoff election with incumbent Sheriff Les Bruce, who finished with 5,347 votes.

Taylor County Sheriff Les Bruce held off a runoff election until the final votes were tallied Tuesday night.

But with all 34 precincts reporting, opponent Deputy Sheriff Ricky Bishop pulled enough support to generate a July 31 runoff.

Ballots cast in early voting painted a somewhat different picture for Bruce, the incumbent starting out the night with 52 percent, 2,496, of early votes, to Bishop's 1,767 and third-time candidate Art Casarez's 934.

As the night wore on with Election Day ballots added, Casarez remained consistently at 17 percent of the total, ending the night with 1,890 votes out of a total of 10,886 cast.

Bishop garnered 3,649 votes once all precincts were counted, not enough to best Bruce's 5,347, but sufficient, along with Casarez's numbers, to drop the incumbent's total to 49 percent, triggering the runoff because Bruce did not win a majority.

"We're going to move through this thing and see how it turns out on July 31st," said Bruce, who told supporters that while he was not "excited about 49 percent," he saw the results Tuesday night as "a test."

Bishop's plan, he said, was to try to earn more votes in July.

"We've got to get out there to encourage everyone to vote," he said.

Effusively thanking his supporters Tuesday night, Casarez told them that he would meet with both remaining candidates, then endorse one.

"I need to get with both of them and see what they're going to offer the minority community — and a little bit of change for the status quo," he said.